OREGON'S
AGRICULTURAL
PROGRESS
Oregon State University, Corvaliis
Summer 1973
Deer
survival
at stake
Survival of a small band of deer
along the lower Columbia River may
hinge on what Oregon State University
researchers can learn about them.
The Columbian white-tailed deer, an
endangered species, is one of 31 subspecies of white-tailed deer inhabiting
North America but is the only one with
such a limited habitat. The only place
the deer are certain to exist is on the
islands and tidal flats of the lower
Columbia River. Another small band
of white-tailed deer along the Umpqua
River near Roseburg also may belong
to the same sub-species, but this has
not been scientifically documented.
OREGON'S
AGRICULTURAL PROGRESS
Contents
Deer survival at stake
2
Regulators grow into new fields
4
Agriculture gets a partner... garbage
Winter wheat pushes back calendar
Nitrosamines: food for thought
5
6
7
Cover
The Columbian white-tailed deer inhabiting the islands and tidal
flats of the Columbia River in Western Oregon are the object of
OSU research that may get them off the endangered species list.
Story begins on this page.
Vol 20, No. 1, Oregon's Agricultural Progress, a quarterly research report published by
the Oregon Agricultural Experiment Station, G Burton Wood, director, is sent free to
Oregon residents. Address requests to Editor, AdS 416R, Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon 97351, or see your County Extension Agent. Written material may be reprinted provided no endorsement of a commercial product is stated or implied. Please
credit Oregon's Agricultural Progress and Oregon State University. To simplify technical
terminology, trade names of products or equipment sometimes will be used. No endorsement of products named is intended nor is criticism implied of products not mentioned.
Paul A. Vohs Jr., associate professor of Fisheries and Wildlife at OSU
has been directing a study supported
by the Bureau of Sport Fisheries and
Wildlife to learn more about the deer
and its habits so it can be successfully managed and perhaps eventually
removed from the endangered species
list.
A one-year field study to characterize vegetation types, determine
movement patterns and obtain an estimate of size of the deer population
has been completed by Lowell Suring,
master's degree candidate in the Department of Fisheries and Wildlife.
The work was done on the Columbian
White-Tailed Deer National Wildlife
Refuge established in 1972 by the
Bureau of Sport Fisheries and Wildlife
as a sanctuary for the deer. The refuge
covers approximately 2,781 acres, encompassing several Columbia River
islands and part of the mainland near
Cathlamet, Washington.
Land incorporated into the refuge
is mostly diked and has been drained
and fenced to provide improved
pasture for dairy and beef cattle. The
pastures are interspersed with small
stands of spruce, alder and cedar and
some have been invaded by thistles
and rushes.
Suring has observed that the deer
are primarily grazers, utilizing rush
Plastic collars help trace deer movement.
and thistle invaded pastures more than
improved pastures that offer less
cover. Proximity of wooded areas also
influences their grazing habits as the
deer prefer open canopy wooded
areas to large open fields.
Vohs and Suring estimate that the
Columbian White-tailed deer population numbers around 225-240 animals.
Based on Suring's observations, there
are about 54 bucks for each 100 does
and only about 35 fawns for each 100
does. The small number of fawns in
relation to the number of does is not
considered detrimental to the herd
because the limited habitat probably
would not support an expanded population, meaning that for every fawn
that survives, there must be a mortality
elsewhere in the herd, said Vohs. Winter mortalities are common among
both adults and young and fawn
deaths also are quite frequent during
the spring and early summer, he
added.
Several deer were marked with 2V2inch-wide plastic collars. Movement
patterns of the marked deer indicate
that the bucks move about on the
refuge much more than the does.
Open fields interspersed with wooded areas are preferred by the Columbian white-tailed
deer.
More deer will be marked with collars this fall as Richard Vowles, Ph.D.
candidate in the Department of Fisheries and Wildlife, follows up on Suring's work with a three-year study of
his own. Vowles will be observing
movements and social interaction of
the deer and hopes to determine why
the deer are restricted to such a
limited habitat. Such information could
open the door to relocation of some of
the animals—a move that hopefully
would increase their numbers.
The area inhabited by the whitetailed deer is shared with more common black-tailed deer. The whitetailed deer can be distinguished from
the black-tailed deer because their
tails, which have a white underside,
are longer and the coats are not as
red as those of black-tailed deer. The
antler rack also is different. Antlers
on the white-tailed deer are formed
from one main stem. Those on the
black-tailed deer fork into two or more
branches.
A grazing plan also is under way to
pinpoint the interaction between the
deer and cattle. Cattle are suspected
of playing an important role in management of the deer, said Vohs. Fields
representing five different vegetative
communities will be grazed with varying intensities to determine deer response to the grazing.
Presence of the Columbian whitetailed deer was first noted by Lewis
and Clark in 1806. They reported seeing and killing deer from what is now
The Dalles to Astoria. The deer also
originally were reported to have
ranged from the lower end of Puget
Sound in Washington to Roseburg.
A committee of representatives from
the Bureau of Sport Fisheries and
Wildlife, Oregon Game Commission,
OSU, and the Washington Department
of Game has been formed to develop
a management plan to expand the
deer population. The OSU studies will
assist the committee members with
development of their management objectives.
If the Roseburg white-tailed deer
belong to the same sub-species as
those found along the Columbia River,
it is possible to speculate that the two
bands may have become separated
and driven to their present locations
as their habitat in the river valleys,
particularly the Willamette Valley,
gradually dried out and were developed for agricultural use.
3
Regulators grow
into new fields
Growth regulators are helping bring rhododendrons into the
home by forcing early blooms and keeping the plants small
and compact.
Growth regulators—synthetic
chemical compounds based on natural
hormones produced by plants—have
been around for a long time and have
been put to a variety of beneficial
uses in agriculture.
Thinning fruit, increasing fruit set,
altering fruit, shape, increasing flower
initiation, chemical training, loosening
fruit for harvest and preventing
physiological disorders are some of
the varied uses that horticulturalists
found for the chemicals. Several of
the special uses for the regulators
were developed or adapted to Oregon
conditions and crops by OSU
Experiment Station scientists.
Now, agronomist David Chilcote and
hortlculturalist Bob Ticknor are
expanding the use of growth
regulators from fruit crops to grasses,
legumes and ornamentals.
Chilcote, working with Southern
Oregon Experiment Station
agronomist John Yungen and graduate
student John Phillips, conducted field
experiments to determine the effect
of several growth regulators on alfalfa
seed production. A one-year-old,
drill-sown stand of Talent alfalfa was
used for the tests. Single applications
of the chemicals were made following
the first cutting of hay. One-half
of the plots was sprayed 10 days later
than the other half to see if timing
had an influence on results.
The researchers obtained
statistically significant increases in
alfalfa seed yield when two growth
regulators—TD6266-R and Alar-85—
were used, suggesting potential for
these chemicals in crops grown for
seed production. Compared to the
check plots which averaged 150
pounds of seed per acre, the
TD6266-R applied at a rate of two
quarts per acre produced seed yields
of 368 pounds per acre. Alar-85
applied at a rate of one pound per
acre produced yields of 366 pounds
per acre. The chemicals increased the
number of seeds per pod. The total
number of pods or average seed
weight was not increased. Cycocel,
TIBA, Ethrel, and 2,4-DB were other
growth regulators tested. Greenhouse
and field experiments involving the
use of growth regulators on alfalfa are
con'.inuing. Chilcote has initiated
similar experiments on grass varieties.
Ticknor, working at the North
Willamete Experiment Station, is
testing growth regulators on
ornamental plants. He is increasing the
number of blooms on rhododendrons
during the first year following
propagation and thinks there is a good
possibility of getting rhododendrons
into bloom for the Valentine's Day
commercial market.
Getting the young plants into bloom
early cuts down on maintenance time
and costs in the nursery, meaning
a better price for the consumer. By
channeling more of the plant's energy
into bud production the growth
regulators also produce a more
compact plant capable of staying in
containers and in the home longer.
Ticknor is testing plant response to
several growth regulating chemicals,
using several varieties of
rhododendrons. He is varying the
method of treatment as well as dosage
given each plant. Spraying the
chemicals on the plants is the most
economical, saving time and labor
compared to drenching the soil around
each plant, but waxy leaves of
rhododendrons have prevented
spraying from being as effective.
Although the number of flowering
plants obtained in relation to the total
plants treated varied depending on
plant variety, two treatments—
drenching with Cycocel and drenching
with Phosphon—produced the best
results on most varieties.
Agriculture
gets
a partner.
garbage
Agriculture is going to waste in the
arid expanses of north central Oregon.
A cooperative project between the
Department of Soil Science at Oregon
State University and The Boeing Company is under way to see if municipal
wastes and agriculture can be blended
for mutual benefit—the waste aiding
with erosion control and moisture conservation and perhaps contributing
some necessary trace elements for
crops and the thousands of acres of
sandy soil offering a potential receptacle for big city garbage. If the system works, it would be an alternative
for many heavily populated areas facing waste disposal problems.
Oregon State University soil scientists V. V. Volk and C. H. Ullery are
working with The Boeing Company
to determine what happens to the
garbage, soil, crops and water quality
when varying rates of shredded municipal waste and sewage sludge are
mixed with the sandy soil.
If the unique Idea is feasible and
accepted, Boeing proposes to barge
as much as 800 tons of garbage a day
up the Columbia River from Portland
to Boardman where the garbage would
be mixed with the soil as part of an
overall land use program the company
Is developing for the 100,000-acre
Boardman test range it leases from
the State of Oregon.
Some 200 tons of shredded waste
from Vancouver, Washington, were
Shredded garbage goes into the soil at a rate of
400 tons per acre.
trucked in September, 1971, to the
Boardman test plots and rototilled into
the soil at rates of 100, 200 and 400
tons per acre. The garbage was composed of normal household and store
wastes but did not include industrial
wastes. When garbage was applied at
a rate of 400 tons per acre (8 inches
thick after packing) it was difficult to
mix with the soil using common farm
rototillers. Sewage sludge was added
in amounts proportional to the garbage application—55 gallons per ton
of waste. Nitrogen fertilizer was added
in varying amounts to each of the soilwaste mixtures to encourage rapid
waste decomposition.
Hyslop wheat was planted as a
winter cover crop and followed by
spring plantings of Fawn fescue and
Sernac alfalfa. The plantings were irrigated.
Paper products in the waste decomposed considerably during the first
winter, leaving pieces of rubber tires,
tennis shoes, plastic, wire and other
more resistant items. Volk and Ullery
suggest that these materials may have
to be shredded more thoroughly or removed to keep them from presenting
problems in commercial planting and
harvesting operations. Two years after
the garbage application, no paper
products can be found in the soil.
The winter stand of Hyslop wheat
on the plots having 100 tons of gar-
Researchers harvest alfalfa grown on the
garbage-soil mixture.
(Continued on page 8)
Slow to decompose items
remain in the soil after
the first year.
Winter wheat
pushes back calendar
For the first two sets of planting
dates, most of the winter wheats
clearly outyielded the spring wheats
planted on the same date. The one
exception was Moro winter wheat
which produced yields close to those
of the spring wheat and well below
that of the other winter wheat varieties.
Nugaines and Hyslop winter wheats
performed the best in the winter plantings. When planted near the end of
February, the winter and spring
wheats produced comparable yields.
After March 1, yields from the winter
wheats dropped rapidly, while the
spring wheat yields stayed about the
same.
Research on varying the planting
dates of spring and winter wheat at
the Pendleton Experiment Station indicates that winter wheat can be
planted as late as February 15 in most
years and still outyield spring wheat.
Station superintendent and agronomist C. R. Rohde has compiled five
years of data on the effect that planting date has on yields at the station
and has initiated similar research in
off-station plots about 15 miles west of
Pendleton.
Although weather conditions have
prevented use of the exact same planting date from year to year, Rohde
made five successive plantings at approximately two-week intervals each
year. The earliest experimental plantings ranged from January 23-25. The
second planting dates ranged from
February 7-18, the third from February
21-March 1, the fourth from March
9-12 and the fifth from March 23-27.
Unlike the wheat, the spring barleys
outperformed the winter barleys at
every planting date during the first
three months of the year, suggesting
that the cutoff date for planting winter
barley is much earlier than for winter
wheat. The earliest maturing winter
barleys such as Hudson and Kamiak
performed more poorly than later maturing varieties such as Luther when
planted in March—just the opposite
of what would be expected, said
Rohde.
Rohde's research covered seven
varieties of wheat—five winter and two
spring wheats. He also made the same
planting date comparisons with barley,
using three spring and three winter
varieties.
Similar research by superintendent
Yield (bushels/acre) of wheat varieties seeded
during late winter and early spring at Redmond
Feb. 23Mar. 3
Mar. 23Mar. 24
Winter
....
Nugaines
__..
Hyslop
Yamhill
....
Kharkof 63-130-66-5 ... .._.
Paha -- .._.
54.2
57.0
16.5
48.0
60.7
60.4
45.1
34.4
Spring
Federation ... ..__
Pitic 62
_
Tobori 66 . _...
Inia 66
....
53.6
58.2
54.2
43.2
55.0
70.0
60.9
49.1
Three winter barleys—Luther, Casbon and Adair—used in the Redmond
trials all outyielded Hannchen, the only
spring variety tested, for each of the
three sets of planting dates. Casbon
and Adair have to be seeded in the
late winter or early spring because
—although considered winter barleys
in other areas—they are not hardy
enough to survive Central Oregon
winters.
Knowing how late in the winter season winter wheat or barley can be
planted and still produce satisfactory
yields is important if a farmer cannot
get his crop planted in the fall because of bad weather or other reasons
or if he needs to reseed because of
winter injury.
Yield (bushels/acre) of wheat varieties seeded during
late winter and early spring at Pendleton
<Seeding Dates
Varieties
Malcolm Johnson at the Central Oregon Experiment Station, Redmond,
produced different results. Yield averages for three sets of planting dates
over three years show that winter
wheats planted from February 23 to
March 3 clearly outyielded spring
wheats planted during the same
period. This means that winter wheat
can be planted a couple of weeks later
in Redmond than in Pendleton and
still produce good yields.
Seeding Dates
Apr. 23Apr. 27
33.3
48.6
39.0
45.0
49.0
51.1
49.8
Varieties
Jan.
23-25
Feb.
7-18
Feb. 21Mar. 1
Winter
Gaines
51.2
48.2
40.2
24.4
Nugaines
65.0
58.1
52.2
30.6
Hyslop
64.6
59.9
52.3
28.7
Moro
41.0
46.0
38.5
19.0
Paha
57.4
57.8
49.5
27.2
Spring
Idaed 59
39.2
47.6
45.8
44.8
38.2
Adams
50.1
51.1
51.0
51.5
52.5
Mar.
9-12
Mar.
23-27
Nitrosamines:
food
for
thought
Nitrosamines can cause cancer.
These chemical compounds, formed
when nitrites combine with naturally
occurring amines, have been
appearing sporadically in some food
products over the last few years and
have prompted worldwide research to
learn more about them.
Researchers are finding that
nitrosamines are rather elusive when
it comes to identifying their presence
in our environment. But, of the more
than 100 nitrosamines that have been
identified so far, approximately
80 percent have caused cancer in
laboratory animals. The liver is the
organ most frequently attacked but
certain nitrosamines will cause cancer
in specific organs other than the liver.
An OSU research team under the
leadership of food scientist Richard
A. Scanlan is in its third year of work
with the compounds. The team is
developing and improving procedures
for detecting nitrosamines in foods
and is testing the cancer-causing
ability of different nitrosamines in
feeding trials with rats. It also is
studying the chemistry of nitrosamine
formation, hoping to learn how to
block their formation in foods.
Nitrosamines gained prominence in
1956 when trace amounts of
dimthylnitrosamine were proved to be
carcinogenic by two English
scientists. Then, in the early 1960s, a
group of Norwegian researchers
linked nitrosamines in fish meal with
liver cancer in mink and sheep.
Formation of the nitrosamines was
traced to excessive usage of sodium
nitrite, a common preservative in
hams, bacon, luncheon meats, hot
dogs, corned beef and other cured
meat products.
Nitrite, as a food additive, has three
functions: 1) as a preservative, it keeps
Clostridium botullnum bacteria from
producing the toxin that causes
botulism; 2) it gives meat an attractive
bright pink color; 3) it contributes to
the flavor of cured meats.
Although most people probably
would be willing to accept safe grey
hot dogs rather than red ones that
might cause a nitrosamine hazard, the
choice between nitrosamines or
botulism is not so clear. The problem
is determining whether the risk of
using nitrites is more than offset by the
potential risk of not using them,
particularly when nitrosamines have
been found only in a few instances
and at low levels, said Scanlan.
Also, removal of man-added nitrites
in foods may be insignificant because
nature offers many other sources of
nitrites. Researchers in Germany and
the Massachussetts Institute of
Technology have found that nitrites
are produced in substantial amounts
in saliva. They conclude that this may
be the principal source of nitrites
consumed by humans.
Nitrates, from which nitrites can be
formed, are widely distributed in
nature. They are abundant in spinach,
celery and certain other plants. They
can be found in significant
concentration in many water supplies,
particularly in agricultural areas.
Sewage discharges, intensive use of
nitrate fertilizers and rising water
tables which leach sub-soil nitrates
into well waters are some of the
sources for nitrates in water.
Laboratory studies have suggested
that nitrosamines can be formed in the
stomach, the only place in the
gastro-intestinal system where the
acidity is high enough for this to
happen. Fortunately, the most
common amines do not appear to
react with nitrites to form nitrosamines
in the stomach.
There may be other factors
influencing nitrosamine formation.
Researchers have found that certain
substances such as tannins, which are
in tea and fruit juices, inhibit
nitrosamine formation by rapidly
reacting with nitrite. Vitamin C has
also been shown to block nitrosamine
formation. This has led to the
suspicion that diet might be a variable
causing the formation of nitrosamineinduced tumors in some populations
while preventing them in others.
Scanlan's interest in nitrosamines
was sparked several years ago when
a paper by some Norwegian scientists
claimed that nitrosamines were
produced by heating certain amino
acids and sugar. This suggested that
(Continued on page 8)
7
(Continued'from page 5)
bage per acre was only slightly below
that of the check plots containing no
garbage. At the 200-ton-pe.r-acre rate
the stand was reduced by approximately 25 percent. The wheat did
poorly at the 400-ton-per-acre rate,
covering only 5 to 10 percent of the
plot area, mainly because of poor
garbage incorporation.
Alfalfa yields for the first cutting
were reduced for all waste treatments.
The greatest decrease occurred at the
highest waste application rate. Yields
improved with the second and third
cuttings, ranging between 2.5 and 3
tons per acre. In the plots with 100
tons of waste per acre, the alfalfa
yields were similar to those in the control plots. Yields in the plots with 200
tons of waste per acre were only 10
percent less than the control plots.
Fescue forage yields decreased
slightly with the application of 100 and
200 tons of garbage per acre.
The uptake of some chemical elements by the different crops increased
with the addition of waste to the soil,
but, with the possible exception of
boron, none appeared to be detrimental. Analysis of wheat tissue
grown on the garbage-soil mixture
showed a high boron content, even
though the soil was close to boron
deficiency before waste application.
Although wheat has a high boron
tolerance and was not affected by the
increase, greenhouse studies supplementing the field research revealed
considerable reduction in the growth
of beans and other boron sensitive
plants on the garbage-soil mixture.
The boron levels in plant tissue decreased with successive crops and,
by the end of the first year, appeared
no longer to be a problem. Boron was
readily leached out of the root zone.
The researchers attribute the increase
in boron to glue and other adhesives
in the waste material.
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EXPERIMENT STATION
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Oregon State University
Corvallis, Oregon 97331
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Increased uptake of other elements
such as zinc and molybdenum are potential problems as they approach
levels of plant toxicity or, as in the
case of molybdenum, may affect livestock eating the forage. Suitability for
animal use of forage grown on the
soil-garbage mixture is an area that
needs further research, said Volk.
Addition of waste caused significant
changes in physical properties of the
soil. Moisture retention and water storage capacity of the soil increased with
the addition of shredded waste, but
the increases were small for waste
applications less than 200 tons per
acre.
One of the biggest changes caused
by the addition of waste was the reduced soil loss from wind erosion. Exposed waste particles act as windbreaks, greatly reducing wind velocity
near the soil surface. Wind tunnel
tests in the laboratory indicated that
the garbage could substantially reduce erosion. During a 20 minute soil
exposure to a 30 mile per hour wind,
the application of 200 tons of garbage
reduced erosion by 88 percent—cutting airborne soil losses from 35 tons
per acre on untreated soil to 4 tons per
acre on the treated soil.
Volk and Ullery see little potential
for contamination of underground
water supplies by leaching of metals
from the waste if proper irrigation
management is combined with the low
rainfall of the area.
Based on the first year's information,
the researchers feel that it is possible
to incorporate municipal waste with
sandy soil and then use the mixture
for agricultural production, providing
the waste is not applied in excess of
200 tons per acre and is shredded
more finely than that used in the experiments. The first year's cropping pattern also would have to be planned to
accommodate the high boron content
of the waste treated soil.
(Continued from page 7)
the carcinogenic compounds could be
created without nitrites and indicated
that nitrosamines were much more
widespread than originally thought
to be.
Skeptical of the Norwegian results,
Scanlan initiated a study to see if he
could duplicate their findings and
concluded that the Norwegians had a
case of mistaken identity—what they
thought were nitrosamines were really
pyrazines, another class of chemical
compounds. A group of German
researchers conducting a similar
study concurrent with Scanlan's
reached the same conclusion.
Scanlan's research team has since
shown for the first time that
nitrosamines, usually formed by
nitrites, reacting with secondary
amines, also can be formed from
tertiary amines and certain primary
amines. They also have synthesized
several nitrosamines and are feeding
two of them—nitrosoproline and
nitrosohydroxyproline—to rats. No
apparent carcinogenic effects have
appeared as the two-year feeding
trials approach completion.
Another mystery the OSU food
scientists are trying to unravel is the
formation of nitrosopyrrolidine, a
heat-induced nitrosamine formed
when bacon is cooked. Although they
do not know for sure how
nitrosopyrrolidine is formed, the
researchers have identified several
chemical suspects that could cause
its formation and are examining those
in more detail. They also are exploring
the reaction products between several
amino acids and nitrite.
The OSU research, coupled with
other studies of the relatively
unexplored nitrosamines, will lead to a
better understanding of the highly
carcinogenic compounds. The goal is
removal of any potential hazards they
may have for humans.
POSTAGE PAID
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF
AGRICULTURE
AGR 101